Sex Warts & All USA

[amsterdam]

Came in from the pub last night to find this programme on the BBC & unfortunatley, I now know HOW TO recover your foreskin if you've been circumcised!

There was a group of these old men (somewhere in the states but I missed where) that were part of some support group explaining the procedure and why they were doing it (an attempt to reverse some of the de-sensitisation - if that's a word - caused by circumcisition). They whipped out their todgers and showed us the stretching device that they had attatched to their manhood and tied round their ankles! One guy had been wearing his stretcher for two years!

Glad I'm still all in one piece! I suppose the question is why do the vast majority of yanks have the chop in the first place?

 

[Bobmi357]

When I was born (late 50's) it was considered both normal and religiously correct. Additionally there is a known link between the foreskin and diseases in individuals with less than adequate hygene skills.

When my boys were born (early 80's), we had them circumsized as well. It was something the hospital offered, we accepted. Not for religious reasons as I'm about as religious as a tree stump. But for reasons of cleaniness.

Personally its one of those things that if you never realize you had one, you'll never miss it. I don't miss the foreskin I once had. I'm sure that people with foreskins probably can't even imagine what its like without one.

In any event, sooner or later if something lasts long enough and becomes widespread enough, it slips into a tradition rather than having a valid health or medical reason. I think thats part of whats happened here in America. Circumcision was copied from the Jewish faith, a fair number of christian sects adopted the idea. Now as we become more secular, its religious reasons are fading, but the procedure is not. Probably because people have become so used to the idea that its become "custom".

Customs don't have to make sense, but they do need to give people a sense of continuity. A link with the past and the future.

 

[wicked woman]

While I agree with Bob, in Canada since the late 70s it's been known that there is no medical reason for circumcision and in fact it is becoming less common. It is no longer an 'automatic' procedure...medical coverage does not cover it, I've been told. Neither of my sons are circumcised although you still find parents want all the men in their family to look alike.

 

[DevilishTexan]

I don't want my foreskin back. Cuz I kinda grew. I mean, alot! So I really don't think it would fit!

 

[peachykeen]

It's still more or less 'routinely' done but that's all it is at this point, a routine - the medical establishment pretty much accepts that it's not neccessary so long as proper hygiene is observed. So nowadays parents of newborns at least are asked if they want it done, rather than it just being done automatically.

There is some school of thought that if a boy's father is circumcised, then the boy ought to be as well, so that as they become older toddlers and 'aware' of their genitals, that they see that theirs looks just like dad's and so it helps in solidifying gender identity and such.

 

[Vixandra]

As long as mom and dad make up thier mind before the kids a year old, which ever way is cool with me.
After that though its just downright cruel to do to a kid without a real medical reason like recurrent UTI's etc.
You try explaining to a 5 year old that's just come out of surgury, looked down and started screaming "they cwut owf my pee pee!" Not a fun task, I assure you. Been there done that, wanted to strangle mom and dad.

Hubby's circed- and because he's Catholic and I personally don't care, our future kids'll probably be too. Better to do it when they're babies and won't miss it then when they get older and will.

 

[Distortion]

I'm kinda upset that I was circumsized, I wish my parents would let me figure it out for myself... Now I'll never know. What if I lost some sensitivity or something? I mean, leaving it on, you can always remove it, but you can't really give it back.

I really don't like people making decisions about my life like that, particlarly in such an important area =/